Korean Recipe ideas
Turning leftovers into something really delicious
The first time I tasted Korean food my university friend Nick, a Chinese language major took me for dinner, with a warning that the flavours may take a bit of getting used to. He was wrong, from the first taste of the kimchi hotpot, I was hooked, and making my own kimchi soon after long before it became a thing. Spring forward three decades, and you’ll find Korean food in it’s authentic form or some inspired riff on the theme on regular rotation on my table.
I once saw a young Australian Korean boy in my clinic whose mother brought him to me as she knew I had insight into the experience of adoption from personal experience, but also because she knew of my passion for Korean food. I recall we spoke about the genetic inheritance we carry for the food of our cultural heritage, and how our bodies often recognise the foods we are genetically primed to thrive on. I suggested they try weaving Korean foods into their weekly dietary plan, and even encouraged him to get involved in creating these dishes bound to his heritage. I heard that he is off at uni now, thriving and creating healthy Korean dishes for himself in his student digs. It makes my heart smile, remembering the young man leaving my clinic that day with a container of fresh kimchi from my kitchen, and a pack of gomasio in hand. Sometimes it’s easy to help transform another’s life, so I don’t forget them.
So lets talk about how I transform things in my kitchen, this really is easy once you know how. Earlier this week I made the classic Korean beef bulgogi, knowing I had a busy week I started the marinade on Sunday afternoon, and made some seasoned Korean rice, flecked though with shredded seasoned nori strips, a touch of ginger in the pot, and a finish with sesame oil, seeds and instant dashi granules to ramp up the umami. So come Monday morning, I made two quick side dishes, a pickled daikon and a stir fry seasoned cucumber. Then come lunch time, I just needed to quickly stir fry a few strips of beef, serve with the sides and kimchi of course. Lunch done, and very tasty too, then back to work.
The first transformation comes the next morning when I get inspired to create a new dish with the leftovers for breakfast. I create a platform with a layer of softened rice paper, then a sheet of nori. Onto this I put a log of steamed Japanese sweet potato, some spring onions and a strip of marinated beef and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. I roll it up, brush a coating of sesame oil to prevent it sticking, and steam the rolls for around 6 minutes and they are done. I served with a gochugaru sauce made by simmering some of the marinade with sesame oil, mirin, soy and gochugaru powder, and garlic or course. This sauce it still going strong, and has a few more dishes to enliven.
The next transformation saw the left over seasoned rice turn into Korean rice balls with you guessed it, the leftover cooked bulgogi beef and steamed sweet potato, sesame oil and seeds. At the same time I also made a Korean Kimbap (think sushi roll) from the rice, beef and pickles and cucumber and you guessed it, topped with some of that gochugaru sauce and a dollop of kewpie mayo. It went down a treat, but there were still left overs, so to the next transformation the next morning. I squished the kimbap portions and leftover rice balls into the sandwich press and out came the crunchiest, umami packed toastie rice things I ate for breakfast with that gochugaru sauce with a boiled egg.
I hope you can see how easy it is to transform leftover’s into another dish, it’s a good way to limit waste and prevent boredom at the table, and it’s certainly easier than self transformation.
